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Category: WuFlu

Thur. Nov. 12, 2020 – ever closer to the end of the year

Coolish, but still damp.

Wednesday was sunny with a nice breeze, but still saturated.  I really need to have the pool cover and liner dry out so I can put them away for the season.

Several of the friends and neighbors I’ve offered the new freezer to mentioned that they just got one.   That’s good news that they are thinking ahead.  A bit worrisome that so many people are concerned enough to take steps, from the point of view that what society as a whole expects, we usually get.  Heartening though that they are acting.  I may just add it to the garage.

Since I was out today, I thought I’d stop at the grocery store and pick up my OTC allergy meds (have to do it in person, thanks meth heads.)  While I was there I might as well buy some fruit and veg, since I can pick it out myself, and I might as well walk the aisles and see what inventory looks like, maybe fill some gaps……   long story cut mercifully shorter, I spent $400 on groceries and an hour and a half.    They had prime sirloin for $5/pound.  Buy a spiral slice ham, get a free turkey.  Pasta in stock.  The soda I like on the shelf.  Milk, breads, eggs, cream, all the staples I’d be buying in a day or two anyway…..  and some canned veg varieties I hadn’t seen before.

Got my allergy meds too.

Home today so I’ll do stuff here.

Oh, and daughter one is ready for orthodontia.  Joy.  We’ll be writing some checks for that…

Thanks for the suggestions for monitoring her web traffic.  Time for me to do some learning.  I really thought I’d have a couple more years before issues like this arose.  That seems to be the story of 2020 though.

Spent some time at my buddy’s store.  Every ten minutes someone stuck their head in the door and asked about ammo.  Word up, the proprietor of your local is VERY TIRED of having people shout at him from the door about ammo.   If you are looking for some, driving from store to store, shouting in the door, and inevitably being told NO! isn’t going to get you any.  This is where those relationships you built in meatspace for the last couple of years pay off.  Oh, you didn’t do that?  ammoseek.com is your best bet, from what I hear online.  And sign up for everyone’s enewsletter and special mailings so if they do get stock in, you’ll hear about it.   All of my buddy’s suppliers are out of everything and they are not encouraging about stuff coming back into stock.   You may be going into what’s coming with what you already have.

This is why we prep.  This is why you put a couple back for friends who might need something later, if you have the chance and the means.  This is also why “Meatspace Baby!” got the traction it did last year.  The online discounter isn’t going to hold a box under the counter for you.  The mom and pop you’ve been buying from for the last couple of years might.  It applies to anything that might be in short supply, meds, seeds, chicks, you name it.  Jane down at the co-op who’s been helping you with gardening advice is much more likely to have what you need or know who does than some chinese reseller online.  Just saying.  On the other hand, it isn’t necessarily too late.  Work the network you already have.  It may turn out that we’re all preppers now, and the guys at the Rotary Club are more switched on than you expected.  Be circumspect though.  Hard times ARE coming, and there will be predators as well.

Stack what you can.  Go out and talk to someone.

nick

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Wed. Nov. 11, 2020 – Veterans’ Day

Overcast, damp, but hopefully cool.

We got a bare dusting of rain in the early morning yesterday, and it was still sitting on stuff at 6pm.  THAT’S how damp it was in Houston.  You sweat just standing still, even at 76F.

I did one pickup, of stuff for the house mainly.  I did get 3 partial jugs of smokeless powder for reloading.  Not something I do, but I’ve got most of what I’d need to reload shotgun… or I’ll sell it as a bundle and hopefully get more than I would for just the pieces.

Today I need to rent a trailer to get all the things.  Mainly I bought 2 pallets of fiberglas batt insulation.  I am going to finish my bathroom project this fall/winter/spring.  It was 2/5 the price of lowes, and that’s a pretty big discount.  I really only needed one pallet, but for the first time in months, the pallets went for less than $200 and my ‘safety placeholder’ bid won.    I’ll use it up in the attic over the kitchen where the existing insulation is minimal.

I’ve got another pickup before that one.  I won some shotgun ammo in a local estate sale.  It went for much less than the crazy high prices the rifle and pistol ammo brought.  Shotty will work just fine, come the day.

Before all that though, daughter 1 has an orthodontia appointment this morning.   I’ll be taking her to that, then back to school.

After all my other tasks, then I’ll use the trailer to move one more thing in the late afternoon/evening and I’ll be done running around for the day.

The local and regional PD have been working overtime on surveillance and arrests.   The other night a massive task force went after the street racers.  Then there was some drug surveillance involving DEA and their aircraft.  Today it was auto theft and armed robbery.    They followed the bad guys and grabbed them as soon as it started to go down.  Had the helo up in case the guys ran.   Some other thing was running too, involving ATF as one of the partner agencies.

The interesting thing for me is that the bad guys still manage to lose the good guys  lot of the time.  Or they spot some of the surveillance and avoid doing any crimes in front of those units, but they can’t help themselves and still commit crimes in front of the others.  Often, the good guys will use a marked unit to make the stop, almost always after establishing probable cause so the target never even knows they were being watched.  I can’t believe how many crooks have broken tail lights, or do really stupid stuff in traffic.   I’d say that 99% of the stuff the local PD and the task forces do never even gets noticed by the press.  Get a scanner and start listening.  It’s enlightening and well worth just having it on while you’re doing other things.

So much to do, I better get busy.   Keep getting ready, keep stacking.

 

nick

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Tues. Nov. 10, 2020 – oh joy. more stuff to do

Cool but still crazy humid.

Like yesterday.  At least it wasn’t so hot in the attic.

Did some work yesterday, after picking up a small window AC unit and a 7cuft chest freezer.  The freezer was scratch and dent, never even turned on.  Still looking to sell it on, rather than fill it up.   I might though.

Today I’m chained to the house.  I’ll make the best of it.  Plenty to do after all…

keep stacking.

n

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Mon. Nov. 9, 2020 – a new week, same old stuff

Cool, chance of rain, then again, maybe not.

Had overcast most of Sunday, but when the sun came out, it sure seemed premature to be draining the pool…  but drain it we did.  Now we need a few more days of no rain to get it dry.  It’s so humid, nothing is drying even with fans on it.  My (preps) submersible pump sure came in handy.  My floor dryer blower will too.  It occurred to me that if you live somewhere with heavy rain and flooding, you should have a way to move water.  When I had a chance to pick up some pumps cheap I did.  Ditto for the floor dryer.

My wife is working from home M, W, F this week so I have a bit of leaway for pickups and other tasks.  So of COURSE my client is having issues.  I’m going to try to do my pickups quickly in the morning, then head over to his place.  It sounds like more gear is dying from the lightning strikes.  We’ll probably replace it all piecemeal.   Speaking of pickups, what did I get?  Some accessory stuff for gubs, 3 bottles of smokeless powder, a small chest freezer, which I will offer to a couple of friends before trying to find it a place at home.  Some household stuff.  I even picked up some masks.  I got a couple of boxes of fifty surgical style with earloops.  I don’t wear them but I know people who do.  The price was reasonable.  I got a box of the K95 double strap “3m” style for 0.40$ per mask.   That’s a far cry from $3/mask.  I’ve got plenty of N95s left for our use, but my low bid won, so hey, more on the stack.

Spent a couple of hours looking at the website for the 11 acre property we are considering.   The house is very strange.  It took me over an hour to figure out the floor plan from the photos, and in the end, I have no idea why you’d build something that way…  I know why it’s still available now, in addition to being one of the ugliest houses we’ve seen. “A different wood featured in every room!” is not the plus the seller thinks it is.   Every window is different (which is how I finally figured out where the missing room was.)  So much of the wood paneling is on a diagonal or horizontal.  Some rooms have 5 or more woods in natural finishes…  Low porch roofs make it look very low to the ground.  And why wouldn’t you put the big windows and a door on the lake view side of the house?  Both bedrooms are tiny, long and narrow.  On the other hand, it has a dedicated smoke house, 30×30 metal building as garage/shop, and a covered shed for vehicle storage.  And it’s up against a forest.  It’s on a ‘no permanent docks’ lake which saves $15-40K right off the bat.  It’s very different from the properties we were looking at a few weeks ago.

So I’m going to have a busy day and a busy week.  I’d best get to it.

Keep stacking what you can, while you can.  This election isn’t over, and even when it is, the fight for our country will just be getting started.  Keep the faith, but also keep your powder dry.

nick

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Sun. Nov. 8, 2020 – like lambs to the slaughter

Cool, damp, sunny later.

Nice day on Saturday.  I did some things, picked up some things, bid on some things, and received some things I ordered.

Spent some time at my secondary working to free up space.  I realized that both of my local auction houses have basically said what I gave them is all they’re taking until next year.  Also, from Thanksgiving to February ebay sales have always been slow for me.  That means if I want to get the stuff out of my house, I need to either have an auction of my own, move some to my secondary and storage, or take a bunch to a listing service.  Or just start scrapping out what I can.  Or I embrace the power of and…

I will say I’m filled with anxiety.  The number of people celebrating the end of honest elections in the US is frankly terrifying.  Their willingness to overlook obvious problems, discount what the actual law and procedure say, and accept the biased media line they’re being fed doesn’t bode well for the future.  They’re well trained sheep, herded whatever direction the shepherd wants them to move.  Outrage on tap, denunciations, two minute hates- the whole shebang.   What’s the difference between a happy mob in the street and an unhappy mob?  Still a mob.  Still a wild animal, barely under control.

What have we already seen?  NATIONAL movements to deify career criminals, and demonize cops.  Mobs chanting “Death to America” in our cities.   Tide pod and other dangerous and idiotic challenges sweep across social media.  Freaking “13 Reasons Why” on television.  Blue whale on the internet.  FFS.  MTV broke the nation’s ability to concentrate and facebook, twitter, tiktok, et al broke the ability to think of consequences past 5 minutes of cut rate fame.

The biased media reports on the crooked count and people line up in the streets to celebrate.  Which, BTW, apparently means hounding people out of their homes…  It’s been only a few days.  The conditioning to expect instant and omniscient results has worked.  The mob acts like they think Trump will leave tomorrow and their new king will be crowned on Tuesday.

The left is already calling for ‘accountability’ and tracking of Trump supporters.  I feel like I’m suddenly in the USSR.  I know what an “accountability file” means when the far right uses it.  I’m pretty sure it means the same to the left.  And what it means in practice is imprisonment, impoverishment, and extra judicial killings.  Every single time.

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that we have until February at the latest before the shooting starts in earnest.*   It’ll be kooks at first, or victims of the mob, but  singletons.  Then it’ll be sneaky but still basically suicide with no real hope of getting away with it.  THEN it’ll go pro.   I REALLY hope I’m wrong.  I really hope there are people on their side to calm the murderous masses.  I really hope the people on our side decide to live and fight another day.  I guess that will depend on how bad it gets, and how quickly.

I’ll also bet that they are calling for Trump to resign and ‘make way’ before the end of the coming week.   They’ll want to keep the momentum up before the law can catch up with the cheating.  They might use mobs in the street and threat of violence so Trump can resign to ‘calm passions’ ‘for the good of the nation’…  no one will want to hear a word about Hunter either, he’s going to get away with it.

Biden couldn’t even get through his first speech without a ‘gaffe’.   He won’t last until the Ides of March.  I’d put a case of Mountain House on that bet.**

There are people saying “it’s not that bad, he won’t have the Senate, it’ll be gridlock” and “he’ll suck so bad we’ll get it back in 4 years”.   Except we won’t.   The fix is in.  If they get away with it this time it will be worse next time.  And think about this, Ol’ Joe wakes up dead in February and the world mourns the passing of an elder statesman, just like drunken killer Kennedy… and we have Harris for 8 years, and her hand picked vice, AOC or the Iman, for 8 more after that.  The Mean Girls ™ will be armed with the full power of the bigcorps, and three letter agencies.  A weaponized IRS denying tax exempt status will seem so quaint, if any of the dirt people can even remember that.  It certainly won’t be in any of the online ‘learner tools’…

Long before those 16 years are up, we’ll be fighting for independence again.  I’ll have my Republic of Texas passport after all.  It’ll be printed in Spanish.

Keep stacking.

nick

 

*by ‘shooting’ I mean armed violence, could be shooting, or arson, or bombings

** guess what it was before I changed it for sounding like a vague threat

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Sat. Nov. 7, 2020 – non-prepping hobby meets today, but…

Cool and clear, at least for another day or two.

It did get into the 80s in the sun yesterday, and the air is still saturated, but it’s very pleasant compared to a month ago.

I spent the afternoon dropping off a couple more things for the local auction.  I stopped by my industrial auctioneer, and he doesn’t want any more stuff until next year.  Dang.   My local guy isn’t interested in taking much more of my stuff this year either.  I’m hosed.  I haven’t even gotten spam from my craigslist listings.  I am going to have to get  a FB Marketplace account.  I’ll have to set up another lappy to do it, as I won’t have that spyware on my main or secondary machine.  I’ve got some researching to do.  No way I can reach my goals without moving stuff a pallet at a time.

My non-prepping hobby club meets today, but I still don’t know if I’ll attend.  Bigger venue, temps taken, and masks enforced, but I’m coughing again, and daughter’s classmate tested positive, and all that.  Seems unwise to be in a room full of guys older than me.  Maybe I’ll just go hang out in the parking lot.  It’s double suck because it’s the day we have our own little swapmeet just for members, and there is probably stuff I could sell if I’d known with more than 3 or 4 days notice.

I’ve also got to pick up some domestic bliss stuff in Conroe, which is an hour and a half round trip if there is traffic.

I’m sure there is a lot of stuff for me to do here as well 😉  like drain the pool, cut the grass, fix the broken stuff, move/organize/put away….

I’m going to take daughter’s advice and see if I sleep through my alarm or not.  In any case I expect to be away from the computer for a while.

Election Flockery continues apace.  I had to read the wiki to be sure of something.  When I mentioned it, my wife reacted as if the Rs forced the 2000 Florida recount to steal the election, so it’s all just karmic balance… Which of course wasn’t what I remembered.   I was right, the Ds filed for the recount, which the Rs tried to kill several times.  Also the allegation was incompetence and racism, not MASSIVE and ORGANIZED fraud.  Just ‘cuz the Rs ended up winners, they get blamed for it.  Wasn’t the case at all.  In the end it came down to <1000 votes, not 90,000.

Pray for an aggressive and righteous response to the allegations of fraud by the appropriate agencies, or we’ll be praying for the souls of our dead.

You can’t have too much, or stashed in too many places.  Start thinking about dispersal and cover, hiding places and friends in useful places.  Just in case they come for you or your stuff.  It’s happened before, it will happen again.  And keep stacking, resources, skills, knowledge, and contacts.

 

nick

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Fri. Nov. 6, 2020 – another quick week

Cool, dry and sunny.  Nice.

Just like yesterday.  Only we did get a bit of patchy cloud, making me wonder if rain was coming anywhere in town.  Didn’t materialize though.

Spent the morning getting some additional stuff ready for auction, spent the afternoon dropping it off, chatting with the auctioneer, and then wasting better than an hour on a pickup when the guys weren’t there.

I made over $800 on the previous bins of stuff so I’m hoping for more this time around.  Drop in the bucket, both for stuff and for money, but ‘baby steps’.

I mentioned previously that I was shifting my focus and treating the election shenanigans as a disaster that has arrived.  I meant that the watching, waiting, and prepping phase was over, and now I’m in the ‘dealing with it’ phase.  If this was a hurricane, I’d be raking the yard,  running the gennie, and passing out hot chocolate.  As it is, I’m not going to watch obsessively, only ‘keep an eye’ on things.  I can’t change anything except to spread awareness, and the people that are likely to be convinced already are, so that’s mostly wasted effort.  Instead I’ll continue getting ready for the next blow, getting stuff in order here.  Bad times are still coming, and now they might come with sleepy Joe or the ho* in charge.

My advice is the same.  Be ready for shortages. Be prepared to stay at home for prolonged periods.  Expect social and economic disruptions and continuing degradation from ‘the good old days.’  Plan to see this through to the other side.  Grand gestures are grand, but there are still Jews in Poland, and Germany.  We, the collective we, can and will get through this.  We, the personal we, may not.  But there are no guarantees in this life anyway, and as Zero Hedge says, On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.

So do what you can, accept that it might not be enough, but give it the old school try.

And keep stacking.

nick

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Thur. Nov. 5, 2020 – the end is nigh or nay, or possibly nee

Cool and sunny, another beautiful fall day.  Probably.

That was yesterday to a T.  I did a bunch of work outside because it was so nice.

Took down and put away all the Halloween decor, both inside and out.  I’ll still be finding stuff I missed for a week or more I’m sure.  Moved stuff around in the driveway.  Moved some stuff in the garage.  Cleaned the house.

When I get stressed I clean.    Kitchen is clean.  And I am stressed.

I don’t see anything good coming out of the blatant and amateurish cheating going on.  I see CWII looming.  I hope you’ve been factoring that possibility into your plans and preps.  I think perhaps we haven’t acknowledged how brutal and vindictive that could be.    Lots of old scores get settled in the name of progress.

Think on it.  What would you do differently if you KNEW your neighbor thought they could kill you with the power of the state?  Think SWATTING on an industrial scale.  Think about weaponized IRS audits.  Think about ‘compliance’ audits.  We’re not going to get there overnight, but those are the sort of thing that happen very suddenly if they happen.

Got some things that you know don’t have a paper trail?  Might want to secure them separately from the stuff that does.  How about ‘tangibles’ without a trail?  It’s worth remembering that the family hiding Anne Frank was breaking the law, and those who betrayed her, and imprisoned her were enforcing it.  Only took a couple of years to get to that point too, in a ‘modern’ and industrial country.

I’m not panicked yet, or calling for drastic measures, just pointing out that if you think things might be headed in that direction, the time to act is SOONER rather than later.

In the mean time, keep stacking.

nick

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Wed. Nov. 4, 2020 – nothing is over til we say it’s over…

Cool and clear.  Like yesterday.

Spent Tuesday at the dentist in the morning, then messing around in the afternoon.  Evening was filled up with election  coverage.

I went to bed with the clear suggestion that DJT would prevail, but who knows?

Maybe things this morning are different.  Maybe Joe stroked out in the night.   In any case, it’s out of our hands.  All we can control is our response to whatever comes.

Mine is to keep prepping.

 

n

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Tues. Nov. 3, 2020 – going to get the whole family’s fangs scraped

Cool and clear.  Still damp though.  Should be a nice day.

Yesterday was nice.  A bit chilly, 45F at 6am, 49F by 7am, and warming throughout.

It was a bit cool in the shade when I was pressure washing.  Still, not freezing.

So I pressure washed the north side of the house.  What a difference to have the green and black off the siding and eves.  Did the driveway too.  Took in and put away some more decor.  That will continue for another day or two.

Kids have remote learning today.  Not sure why, they were scheduled to have the day completely off.  We’ll be headed to the dentist later, and OH, wife and I will be voting in person.

If you haven’t voted yet, and you are eligible, please do so.   Vote your conscience but consider the plans each of the candidates has for America.   If you seriously can’t pick, leave President blank and at least vote NO on all the incumbent judges.   If they’re well loved, it won’t hurt them, and if they should go, you’ll be helping.  For the other local positions, I hope you can make informed choices.  If you know nothing at all about them, the Republican party doesn’t want to go socialist, and the Democrat party does.  Vote on that basis.  Local matters and it’s where your vote DOES count.

Lots of predictions.   I’ll say that I think it will be Trump by a wide margin.  I’m basing that mostly on enthusiasm.  His base is fired up and WILL go to the polls.   Biden is the negative candidate, his base is reluctant, and might just say “F it” and stay home, or switch.  I hope I’m right, because I see dire changes to the US coming if the Dems take control.  They’ve TOLD us what they want, and it isn’t for you and I to live in peace and comfort.

Short term, keep your eyes open and your options open too.  Treat crowds like flood waters and ‘turn around, don’t drown.’    Take another route.  Try another time.  Give my druthers, I’d stay home today.  There are places that are going to explode tonight.  Stay away from them if you can.  If you can’t, WIN.

And remember that there are cameras everywhere.

Stay frosty.

 

nick

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